How long can fish survive with only aeration?

Han · Aug 5, 2020

Long story short I’ve been without power since about 2 pm yesterday. I was totally unprepared and left my generator at work assuming I wouldn’t need it, now most of my town is without power and there are live wires down across the road trapping me on my dead end street. I’m an idiot, I know.

My 2 main tanks (60g and 75g) have had only battery powered aerators going since the power went out. I have enough batteries to last a few days thankfully, but how long can I expect the fish to survive without heat and proper flow? Tanks are now at 73 degrees. I don’t even care about the thousands of dollars in corals at this point I’m just worried about the fish. I also have a reef lobster in a 20g tank in my basement but I don’t have an aerator for him. He’s still alive at this point somehow.

brandon429 · Aug 5, 2020

weak aeration by bubbling will beat powerheads of decent strength in offgassing co2 and bringing in 02, you're set. Columnar laminar flow will always beat random eddie currents for oxygenation, but not food delivery.

They will live as long as they'd live using powerheads which are weaker than bubbles due to almost zero surface boil/rapid expansion of surface area at the gas exchange zone.

cheap bubbling airstones are the most powerful oxygenators in reefing other than actual oxydators lol, Id want air bubbling over battery powered water pumps any day of the week in this setting.

I would try heating up on stove some reef water and lightly pouring back in to keep in mid 70s if possible or better

Han · Aug 5, 2020

brandon429 said:
weak aeration by bubbling will beat powerheads of decent strength in offgassing co2 and bringing in 02, you're set. Columnar laminar flow will always beat random eddie currents for oxygenation, but not food delivery.

They will live as long as they'd live using powerheads which are weaker than bubbles due to almost zero surface boil/rapid expansion of surface area at the gas exchange zone.

cheap bubbling airstones are the most powerful oxygenators in reefing, Id want those over battery powered water pumps any day of the week in this setting.

Ok, I’m using cheap battery bubblers used for live bait so hopefully the fish will be ok for some time. How much of a concern is the temp?

brandon429 · Aug 5, 2020

thankfully its summer I do think they're ok with a little boosted heating from stove water done carefully, poured in slowly just to kick up a degree or two. I dont think Id let temps get much lower, this is not at lethal temp currently

my heater failed in 2018 from november to ~march and I couldnt figure out why my corals were bleaching, it had been about 68 degrees for 4 mos is why lol. I got it all back over time. I dont own any reef testing equipment/an eyeballer/ is how I got pinched.

Fish are a little more forgiving but Id keep things 70s minimum

madweazl · Aug 5, 2020

My reef survived the power outage in San Diego years ago. We had no power for about 13 hours on a 100° day; it got toasty in there but you couldnt tell anything was wrong after the power came back on. During a move from CA to AZ, I had my reef running in the back of a U-haul truck in 100+ temps for about 36 hours within no casualties (using the same battery operated air pumps).

Tuffyyyyy · Aug 5, 2020

@brandon429 bringing the heat with these answers haha. Do you have a way to monitor the temp? Fish/coral seem to do better in colder temps vs. hotter so I'd really just try to keep your temp between 70F and 80F as much as possible, and then don't do anything to drastically change the temp. Everything needs to be as gradual as possible.

DSEKULA · Aug 5, 2020

Honestly this can be indefinitely as long as you can keep temps high 60s low 70s. You can also wrap some quilts etc around the tank to hold what heat you have.

Jen1978 · Aug 5, 2020

I don't have major power issues in PA but I just read earlier this morning that when worse comes to worse, just take a bucket of water from your tank every so often and dump it back in to keep things moving. I believe the poster has said that they have used this method for 4 or 5 days at a time. I would suggest keeping feeding to a mininum though. Good luck to all of you suffering without power from these storms.

proxy001 · Aug 5, 2020

I have kept fish alive with powerhead only, breaking the surface heavily for 36+ hours in a 85F tank. Depends also on how stocked you are. Dont feed.

najer · Aug 5, 2020

As above bubblers are great, my last outage was about 14 hours, I swirled the tank every 10 minutes or so with a kitchen (plastic) spatula, stirs up any dead spot, fingers crossed for you.

ZoWhat · Aug 5, 2020

...........

Peace River · Aug 5, 2020

I have kept fish for several days during power outages because of hurricanes. Battery powered air pumps are a big help so having those on hand was definitely something that you did right! Water changes can also help. One other thing to consider is that if you have a sump (or canister) that doesn't have agitation then you may not want to pump that water back in to your main tank when the power comes back on.

ZoWhat · Aug 5, 2020

@Han

Why don't you PHONE A FRIEND to come pick you up down the street to drive you to work.... give them $20.... go get your generator!

Heck.... call an U B E R

C'mon man, use your noggin

.

DSEKULA · Aug 5, 2020

skimjim said:
@Han

Why don't you PHONE A FRIEND to come pick you up down the street to drive you to work.... give them $20.... go get your generator!

Heck.... call an U B E R

C'mon man, use your noggin

.

Op said there's power lines down in the street so the roads are closed untill that's taken care of. As soon as that's fixed, yes, go get the Genny but with the conditions op is describing its likey a wide spread issue and might take a bit to get to them.

Han · Aug 5, 2020

Just a little update- they finally cleared the roads enough that my coworkers were able to get the generator to me. Would have liked to get it here sooner but it was impossible to get anywhere near my place because there’s so many trees/power lines down. All my tanks are up and running again thankfully, thanks for the advice everybody. I’ll definitely be bringing the generator home from work every day from now on lol.

ZoWhat · Aug 5, 2020

TJDSEKULA said:
Op said there's power lines down in the street so the roads are closed untill that's taken care of. As soon as that's fixed, yes, go get the Genny but with the conditions op is describing its likey a wide spread issue and might take a bit to get to them.

Help me understand why its so difficult to walk a mile from your house and hitch a ride?

I guess I'm rude for asking but if I had thousand of dollars to lose, I'd hike a mile thru woods to get to a clear road to go get the generator via Uber, Lyft or a friend... then hike back with the generator.

But in the end...it sounds like things worked out.

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